From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Werder Bremen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Giovane Gomes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Martijn Berden falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market24 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Jovan Marković is in the works
Hatayspor have made the call to Farul Constanța. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Match22 Aug 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Baran Sarka goes up and wins it — 7.73
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.73 for the rest of it.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Hatayspor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hatayspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Corum FK left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Martijn Berden falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Hatayspor asked and Farul Constanța said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hatayspor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Deyson Copete arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Deyson Copete has, at Hatayspor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Hatayspor
Giovane Gomes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Martijn Berden falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antalyaspor have kept their man, and Hatayspor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Muhammed Calhanoglu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Merih Ozan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mustafa Celik has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The formation has left Deyson Copete behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hatayspor will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Baran Sarka and Hatayspor agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Hatayspor
Funsho Bamgboye and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Giovane Gomes behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hatayspor will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hatayspor, another week without a signature from Giovane Gomes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Engin Aksoy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Tunahan Taşçı is in the works
Hatayspor have made the call to Konyaspor. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Igdir FK have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Arda Özçimen is in the works
Hatayspor have made the call to Goztepe. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.